


The Super(soldier) Child and You: a guide to parenting in the 21st century

by TheFlailing



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Kidfic, M/M, Post-Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie), basically lots of fluff, i still don't know how to tag things, with some feels in between
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-07
Updated: 2017-01-11
Packaged: 2018-06-06 20:56:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6769594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheFlailing/pseuds/TheFlailing
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Now that Steve's got Bucky back, it feels like the world is finally right again. As the two super soldiers learn to navigate life in the 21st century, everything changes after one mission. A portal spewing monsters, not unlike the New York incident, appears, only this time, a young woman and a small boy come through as well. When they refer to Steve as 'father', well, he's not quite sure what to do with that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I SAW CIVIL WAR LAST NIGHT I NEVER BEFORE HAVE I BEEN THIS INVIGORATED! IT WAS EVERYTHING I WANTED AND MORE! The Russo brothers are the only people I trust to direct Marvel movies anymore, and their screen writers too. Just... UNF IT WAS SO GOOD! I'M GOING AGAIN ON TUESDAY!!!
> 
> I was feeling totally pumped and ended up vomiting out this chapter in record time ahahahahahaha! It's kind of just crack - lots of fluff with some angst and feels as a side serving. I hope you like it =D

It started off as a regular call

Or, as regular as things can get, for the Avengers.

Something about a portal through space-time that was spewing alien monsters? It wasn’t the most absurd emergency – technically, they’d already done this in New York.

The quinjet slid through the air with precision, the ride smooth and gentle, despite the fact that they were flying at top speed. Steve stood, decked out in full combat gear, staring out the window. His trusty shield was already mounted onto his back, his helmet hung loosely from his fingertips. The dense, heavy fabric of his battle-worn uniform weighed heavily, both on his body, and on his soul.

It had been four years since the Avengers Initiative pulled him back into service, four years since Steve had been yanked straight out of the 1940’s. Staring blankly at the wall, the captain tried to clear his mind and focus on his breathing.

Behind him, the jet was silent save for the hum of the engines. Nat was in the pilot’s seat, expertly steering them towards rip in space-time that had roared to life twenty minutes ago. Her fiery red hair contrasted with her black uniform. At the back, Steve could hear heavy footfalls and plastic clicking – that was Sam pacing back and forth, toying with his goggles as he went. Somewhere to the left, Steve knew Thor would be sitting, head bowed, Mjolnir in his hands, and whispered battle prayers falling from his lips. Wanda was in the corner, leaning against the hull with her arms crossed, staring at the welding.

Steve inhaled deeply.

Gazing out the window, he tried to empty his mind, focusing on the slow beat of his heart, the subtle _thump-thump_ of the blood flowing through his veins, the taught and coiled fibres of his muscles.

Steve exhaled.

The world needed saving, and this was his job.

“Hey.”

The greeting was soft; the voice low in timbre and gentle in nature, and it caressed Steve’s soul like no other. A heavy hand clapped him heartily on the shoulder, and a moment later, a broad figure sauntered into view.

It still surprised him how quietly this man moved – Steve swore that this man and Natasha were the only people in the entire world who were capable of sneaking up on him. Bright, sparkling emerald eyes were framed by dark lashes and heavy eyebrows. A strong forehead was hidden by a cascade of long, dark hair. A square, firm jaw, dusted with stubble, supported a set of pale, thin lips.

“I know that look.”

Steve sighed, and lowered his eyes.

“Hey, look at me.” The voice was quiet, almost a whisper, and more gentle than Steve ever deserved.

Cold fingers brushed against Steve’s jaw, tilting his head back up until his own grey-blue eyes were looking into an endless meadow of green.

Steve didn’t need to say anything. Leaning forwards, Bucky brushed their lips together, and the smallest of sighs escaped the captain. That was one of the things he loved about his best friend – Bucky knew Steve better than Steve knew himself, and he was immensely glad that the Hydra fiasco was behind them now.

The search for Bucky had been hellish, and his recovery even worse still, but Steve would have done it a million times over. To have this man standing before him now – it was worth more than everything Steve had to give.

“We’ll be landing soon,” said Steve.

Bucky’s mouth quirked into a lopsided smile. “I’ve never fought aliens before. This should be fun. Got any tips?”

Steve chuckled. “Try not to get any of the juices on you – that stuff is impossible to wash off.”

“Well, if you wanna do a good job, you can’t be afraid to get your hands dirty,” Bucky replied with a wink.

“Alright team,” Natasha said, raising her voice to be heard above the increasing roar of the engines. “It’s show time!”

-8-

“You never said anything about alien blood being bright orange.” Bucky’s voice cracked over the earpiece as Steve brought his shield down like a guillotine, severing several limbs. Said organic blood spewed forth like water from a garden hose, splattering over the sidewalk and sullying the windows of a nearby abandoned car.

“Last time we had aliens, the blood was green,” Steve replied, sprinting forwards and throwing his momentum into a punch that cracked bones. The monster beneath his fist wailed with its final breath before slumping to the ground.

A significant number of monsters had already come through the portal when they’d arrived, and the first order of business had been to close the portal, and it had taken just under thirty minutes before Wanda achieved that feat. All that was left was the clean-up, which, theoretically, should have been easy, but the sheer number of monsters meant that this was taking longer than expected.

The aliens – at least, Steve thought they were aliens? – didn’t look like anything he’d ever seen before, but then again, the only aliens he’d ever fought were the Chitauri. These aliens were tall, large, and really squishy. It made them prone to popping, which was extremely unpleasant due to the colour the guts that inevitably exploded everywhere. Steve didn’t think he could ever look at orange soda the same way ever again.

The sound of cracking electricity and the rumble of a building collapsing in the distance caught Steve’s attention. This section of the city had been cordoned off, and the captain thought they were doing a pretty good job at limiting the area of destruction.

“Friends, I appear to require assistance,” a booming voice said over the intercom.

“Thor? What’s your position?”

A bolt of lightning rent the sky.

“Natasha?” Steve asked as one monster came barreling down the street. In broad daylight, the creature’s lumpy, slime covered skin glinted sickeningly as it bounded towards him.

“Sorry Cap, I got my hands full,” said Natasha, the sound of her spider bites sizzling in the background.

The ugly lump of bloated flesh, the largest Steve had seen thus far, opened its grotesque mouth and bellowed at him.

“Sam?”

Breaking into a run, Steve whipped his shield forward; the vibranium disk ricocheted off a car and struck the beast in the head before bouncing back towards him.

“No sir, Wanda and I are on the east side dealing with some ugly-ass breakaways threatening to compromise the perimeter.”

“That leaves you and me, Buck,” Steve said as he caught the shield with his left hand. “You go help Thor and rendezvous as soon as you can, I’ll handle the south corridor.”

“You sure you got this?” came Bucky’s reply. Over the intercom, he could hear Bucky’s rifle firing a round, and a moment later, the monster in front of him flinched. Roaring in pain, the hesitation was the exact opening Steve needed to leap into the air. Bracing himself behind the shield, the captain put his entire weight behind the disk that slammed down on the monster’s face.

A sickening crunch echoed through the metal.

“Yeah, I got this,” he said as he slid off the carcass and landed on the balls of his feet. “Go get Thor.”

“Roger that, Rogers.”

For the next twenty minutes, Steve occupied himself with taking out as many of the monsters as he could find. There were definitely fewer of the things now than there were when they closed the portal, which was a good thing. The streets were no longer teeming with screaming grotesque beasts – they were now filled with bloated corpses.

Steve mounted the shield on his left arm, taking a second to breathe after taking down a particularly feisty individual. The street he was on was now devoid of movement, so the captain moved towards an alley, the next street over visible between the two towering buildings.

Stepping into the shadow of the passage, he was spared from the harsh glare of the sun. No monsters had apparently made their way into the narrow backstreet, and the molding concrete was littered with trash and rotting garbage. A few rats scurried about their business, oblivious to the mass destruction around them.

Upon hearing the sound of squelching flesh in the street ahead, Steve shifted into a light jog. His boots impacted heavily on the ground and his footsteps echoed faintly around him. From one punch to the next, one battle to another, this is how Steve had lived his life for as long as he could remember.

The captain jogged into the street, and just as he was getting his bearings, there was no ground beneath his foot where he expected there would be. There was a split second of weightlessness, that one moment akin to climbing up a stairway and miscounting the number of steps, and where one expects the last stair to exist, there is none, and one’s foot falls through the air and one is gripped with unexpected shock. That moment was followed by a loud crunch as his foot finally hit something solid.

Blinking, Steve looked down to find that he had stepped into a hole in the concrete, sticky bright orange goo spilling out of it, covering his leg and the surrounding concrete. Wincing, the captain tried to pull himself out, but he was buried up to the thigh, and the monster guts were sticky, creating a sort of suction.

“Fuck,” Steve whispered as he tried to free himself, but to no avail.

It wouldn’t have been too bad if it hadn’t been for the creature that spotted him at that exact moment. Only a stone’s throw away, the lumpy beast turned its hideous face in Steve’s direction and roared.

“Fuck,” Steve said once more as he struggled with the sticky orange goop.

The monster moved forward, and Steve could smell the ungainly stench emanating from its flesh. Already, the captain’s mind was running a mile a minute, analyzing his surroundings and calculating the best way out of the sticky situation. He could use his shield, but with the limited range of motion, it would be unlikely for him to get an angle that would have the shield returning to him. There was no sizeable pieces debris around to throw at it, and it didn’t look like getting un-stuck from his position was happening any time soon. He could try to fend off the beast with hand-to-lump combat, but that was risky and involved allowing the creature to get closer than Steve cared to let it.

Almost upon him now, the fiend was about to force Steve to act when an object flew literally out of left field, striking the beast in the face and bouncing back from whence it came. It moved fast, and even with Steve’s heightened senses, it was hard for him to discern what exactly the object was.

But Steve didn’t have to wonder for long. A moment later, the person who threw the object bolted into view. The figure was tall and slender, and whoever it was had an economy of motion about them unlike Steve had ever seen before. With a speed that only a super soldier could possess, the newcomer raced into view, catapulting themselves over the hood of a crashed car, into the air, and landing on the monster’s neck with an outstretched boot.

A severing _snap_ filled the air, and the monster crumpled to the ground.

Steve could only stare as the person leaped gracefully off the corpse and landed with precision on the concrete in front of him.

In full view now, Steve could finally get a good look at his savior, and he was momentarily stunned. Sandy-blonde hair bracketed a long face and continued to cascade past a set of firm set shoulders. Bright, viridian eyes held a piercing gaze atop high cheekbones. The visage was striking, the expression hard-set.

Figure-wise, Steve could see that the body was powerful and streamlined. Clad in heavy, combat-sturdy material, it was the design that was striking to him. Mostly composed of navy blue, a single large silver star was emblazoned on the chest, just under the collarbones, and the abdomen was adorned with red and white stripes. It was most assuredly styled after the very combat suit Steve was currently wearing. Even more, the figure grasped a worn shield in the left hand, and he could have sworn it was a twin to his own.

“Are you okay? Here, let me-”

The woman seemed to see Steve for the first time – really see him – and her eyes widened as she hesitated.

“It... it’s not possible...”

Steve was thinking the exact same thing, and for a single moment, the two gaped at one another.

The reverie was broken by the sound crumbling concrete. Both Steve and the woman turned to look at the same time. Immediately noticeable was the fact that the building on the right had suffered extreme structural damage, which was why it was now threatening to fall. Leaning towards them, it was only a matter of moments before it came crashing down on top of them both.

The woman glanced at Steve, alarm clearly sketched on her features. There was very much enough time for her to escape unscathed, but it was nowhere near possible for her to save Steve.

“El! Look out!”

The shout echoed across the empty street just as the building was folding down upon them. Steve braced for the impact, but as the cement began to plummet through the air, a strange energy filled the atmosphere.

A shiver ran down Steve’s spine and a ghostly breeze wafted over them. The heavy pieces of building seemed to slow in their descent until they hung motionless, levitating in place. At first, Steve thought that it was Wanda’s hand that was saving them, but a quick scan of the hovering building showed no signs of her red mist. Steve watched with a small sense of wonder as the tower’s debris floated slowly into the empty street, and once it was a safe distance away, dropped straight to the ground.

“Eleanor!”

The voice that had called out before came once again, this time followed by the sounds of footsteps. The woman – Eleanor, if the newest voice was to be believed, turned.

Now distracted, Steve took the opportunity to reorient himself for another attempt at un-sticking his leg. One large push caused a small shift, and after a bit of wriggling, he finally managed to free himself from the disgusting sinkhole.

When he looked up, his newest savior had already arrived on the scene.

He was shocked to find that it was a small boy who couldn’t have been older than thirteen. He was short, and clad in a black, thickly woven material. Steve could have sworn that the heavy, strapped pants and padded, fitting jacket made up a combat suit as well, but who would ever send a child like this into battle? The boy was clinging to the woman, his arms hugged around her waist, his face level with the silver star on the woman’s uniform.

“Eleanor! Are you okay?” The boy’s voice was pitched high, confirming his youth.

“I’m fine Morgan, thanks for the save,” replied the young woman – for that’s what she was; if Steve had to guess, he'd say she was about twenty years old.

“Are you sure? What happened? I’ve never seen you lose focus before!”

The woman seemed to falter for a moment. “I... I got distracted.”

“What? Distracted? YOU? What could have possibly-”

The woman had turned to face Steve as the boy gushed, and when the boy’s gaze followed hers to land on Steve, the boy’s eyes widened.

“...Father?”

Who was this boy, and this young woman? Who were they? Where did they come from, and why did the woman- Wait, did Steve hear correctly? Did the boy just-

“Father!”

But before Steve’s thoughts could catch up with him, the boy was running towards the captain, and soon Steve found himself wound in a tight embrace. The boy’s slender arms reached all the way around his waist, his pale face buried into the fabric just beneath Steve’s chest.

The boy squeezed tight for a moment before looking up. His eyes, up close were also impossibly green, and it was like getting lost in sea of lush foliage. The boy’s skin was pale, like the glow of the moon on a clear night, and long, dark hair tumbled from his head. His pale lips split his face with an enormous smile.

“Father, I’ve missed you!”

Steve stood in stunned silence, his brain momentarily short-circuited.

“I... what?”

The boy simply beamed up at him with obvious joy.

“Morgan, you can’t-”

_Click_

The sound of a gun cocking was muted, but didn’t fail to register with all parties present.

Steve looked up to find the barrel of a gun nestled right up against the back of young woman’s head, held in place by a gleaming, silver arm. Bucky’s eyes were hard, his mouth pinched into a line and his body language tense and on alert. The young woman couldn’t see her assailant, and Steve was impressed that she kept her gaze forward and held herself calmly.

Bucky glared at the boy. “Step away from Captain America,” he said, his voice low and dangerous.

The boy lowered his arms and took a small step away, his face bearing the expression of a kicked puppy. Unsure green eyes darted between Bucky and Steve, and it broke Steve’s heart.

“You have two minutes to explain yourselves, or I’ll blow your brains all over the street,” Bucky spat, his voice dripping with venom. “Who are you and why are you here?”

Steve blinked. “Jesus, Bucky, lower your gun,” he said, moving towards his partner.

Bucky glared back at him. “Steve.”

“Bucky, they’re just kids!” he replied, coming face to face with the man.

“They’re dangerous! It doesn’t matter how young they are, we have to be careful. They came through the same portal as those – those _things_! We don’t know if we can trust them!”

“They saved my life, Bucky! That’s enough for me, at least for now,” Steve said, placing a hand on the metal arm holding the gun. “Stand down,” he said, more quietly this time. The dark haired man locked eyes with Steve, silently searching for an answer in the captain’s blue irises. Thankfully, when he applied pressure, Bucky let Steve lower his arm until the gun was pointing straight at the ground. “Thank you,” Steve said in an almost whisper, as gently as he could.

Imminent death avoided, the woman stepped forwards and slowly turned to face them. The boy ran up to her, and she pulled him protectively to her side. Though her stance appeared relaxed, Steve knew that she was ready act if she felt that things were to go south.

“Thank you for saving my life,” Steve said in an attempt to diffuse the situation. “Twice.”

The boy opened his mouth to reply, only to have the woman put her hand over his face to silence him.

Alright then.

“I guess we should start with introductions? Who are you?”

The woman still wore a hardened expression, but replied all the same.

“My name is Eleanor Sarah Rogers-Barnes, and this is my brother, Мстислав Ваня Rogers-Barnes and-”

“My name is Morgan!”

The woman rolled her eyes. “Right. Morgan. And, well, we're your kids"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah... I kind of took everything I liked from Ultron (not much) and just... ignored the rest...
> 
> This piece is dedicated to [ GhostFish ](http://ghost-fish.tumblr.com/) and [ Greyrider ](http://Greyrider.tumblr.com/)


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wah! Thank you everyone for the comments and positive response to the first chapter! It was such a pleasant surprise! I hope you like the second one! =D

Steve blinked. “Um.”

Bucky snorted. “You expect us to believe you?” he said, crossing his arms.

The captain shot the man a ‘behave yourself,’ look, and Bucky looked away with a scowl.

“What Bucky _means_ is, how is that possible?” Steve said, turning back to the two in front of him.

The woman – Eleanor – sighed. “It’s... hard to explain? Partly because I’m not entirely sure where – or when – we are right now? I mean, one minute, Morgan and I were fighting these monster things, and the next minute, there was some sort of weird explosion, and we find ourselves here, in a totally different place. I’m not good with all of this strange magic-slash-space-time stuff. That’s Morgan’s specialty,” she said, looking to her brother.

The boy shrugged. “We’ve been too busy fighting these gross things and I haven’t had time to get my bearings, but this is definitely _not_ where we’re from,” the boy said, looking around.

Steve wanted to ask him to elaborate when a voice crackled over the intercom.

“Steve! Bucky! Jeez, there you are!”

A moment later, the sounds of Sam’s falcon gear soared overhead. Steve looked up just in time to see Sam’s tensile-carbon reinforced wings, gleaming black and red, fold back into the storage unit on his back as the man literally dropped out of the sky and landed beside them.

“Man, where’d you guys disappear to?” he said in a huff, removing his goggles. “We’re all cleaned up, now, looks like we got all of them.”

It was then that Sam seemed to notice the newcomers, and it was almost comical the way he did a double take. “Wait, WHOA, dude, that girl’s got a Captain America suit,” he mock whispered to the two other men. “And the tiny dude kinda looks like a mini Winter Soldier,” he said.

Steve had thought there was something eerily familiar about the boy, but until Sam had said it out loud, he had been having a hard time pinpointing exactly what it was. But that was the truth of it – the boy did indeed look like a mini version of Bucky.

Actually, Steve was starting to feel really stupid, cause the boy was a spitting image of Bucky in grade school, right down to the lanky limbs and unkempt hair.

“Who are these kids?”

“Well, they’re... um...”

But Steve was interrupted by Morgan’s shout. “UNCLE SAMMY!” he said, throwing his arms up into the air. “El look! Uncle Sammy is here too!” he said with excitement.

The strangest expression fell over Sam’s face, and if they had been in a more relaxed environment, Steve would have laughed out loud – it was some weird mixture of pride, confusion, and shock, and Steve wanted it framed to mount on the living room wall.

“Uncle- what? What did that kid just say?” Sam said as he gaped.

“What’s taking you so long?” Natasha appeared as if from thin air, dust and goop caught in her curled locks and a sort of bored annoyance tempered with fondness in her expression. Her matte black combat uniform was only splattered lightly in bright orange. “Let’s get going already, we’ve caused enough of a scene today, we don’t want the news cameras catching us dawdling over-”

“Auntie Nat!” Again, the boy’s voice pierced the air.

Natasha flinched so slightly that only Steve and Bucky caught it.

“Excuse me?” she replied.

“Morgan, hush.”

Steve rolled his eyes. Things were quickly getting out of hand. Life had rarely let Steve down in the past, and this was no exception, for a moment later Thor and Wanda appeared on the scene.

“Has something important happened?” Wanda asked as she floated to the ground, a cloud of red mist shimmering around her. Dust and orange coated portions of her red jacket, but it seems her hair, long and light brown, seemed to have escaped any monster guts. Her high boots clicked mutely on the concrete as she landed, also seemingly devoid of entrails.

Morgan, who obviously didn’t want to upset his sister, squealed softly, “Auntie Wanda!”

“Captain! We remain victorious!” boomed Thor’s deep voice over the gathered crowd. Heartily, the Norse demigod clapped both Steve and Bucky on the shoulder.

At the sight of the tall, muscular blonde, Morgan’s eyes widened in wonder and fascination.

“Whoa,” he whispered. “Eleanor, who’s that?” he asked, nudging her with his elbow. “Is that... Thor?”

The mention of his name seemed to catch the towering demigod’s attention. “Oh, and who is this?” he said, barging between Steve and Bucky to crouch down in front of the boy. His silver scaled armour gleamed in the afternoon sun and the long, heavy cape also seemed impossibly clean for one so fond of close combat. “You strike a fine figure, little soldier,” Thor said, running a large hand through his long, golden hair, a hearty smile on his face. “Who might you be?”

“I’m Morgan!” came the enthusiastic reply.

Thor laughed, deep and resonant, as he turned to Steve and Bucky. “You know, Captain, the little soldier bears resemblance to your Bu-”

“Don’t,” Bucky growled in response, cutting off Thor’s last word.

The god of thunder shrugged, seemingly unfazed.

“As much fun as this is, we should get going. I know everyone has a lot of questions, but this is not the place to be hearing the answer,” Nat said, her eyes shifting warily around. “Let’s get back to Avengers Tower, and we can figure out where to go from there.”

Everyone quickly agreed, and it didn’t take long before the whole team – plus two – were piled into the quinjet and speeding back to base.

The ride was, for the most part, quiet. Everyone had agreed to save their questions for when they returned, and the various members of the team were engaging in their post-battle rituals. Thor, jovial from a fine day of battle and conquest, was full of energy, his loud voice carrying over the roar of the engines. Currently, he was swapping battle stories with Sam. Wanda was in the cockpit with Natasha, and at the back of the jet, Eleanor had sequestered herself and her brother away from the group. The two young ones were engaged in a heated discussion in hushed tones. Morgan’s enthusiasm seemed like it could not be curbed, but the young woman seemed to have an air of caution about her.

“Bucky.” Steve said the name quietly, privately. His partner had his arms crossed tightly over his chest, his mouth pulled into a deep scowl as he glared at the cloud cover outside the window. Now that he had the chance, Steve could see that Bucky’s normally pristine black combat gear was smeared with orange and ripped in some places. His long, matted dark hair was caked with mud and a bruise was forming over his left cheek.

“I don’t like this,” Bucky said through gritted teeth. “I don’t have a good feeling about this, Steve.”

Steve crossed his own arms over his chest, leaning his back against the window to observe the group before him. “I know. I’m not asking you to like it.”

“They’re dangerous, Steve.”

The captain sighed. “We’re all dangerous, Buck, and they’re two kids against all of us. I just... want you to keep an open mind, I guess? Let’s hear what they have to say before making any decisions.”

Bucky didn’t reply.

Steve conceded – there was no way either of them was going to budge on this, and it was pointless to try and argue any longer. Leaning in, Steve brushed his lips against Bucky’s ear. That the man didn’t push him away was a sign of truce, for now.

When he pulled back, Steve noticed Wanda had left the cockpit and was making her way towards them, a familiar expression on her face. Since they’d met just over a year ago, Wanda had turned to Steve as a mentor, and his trust in her had begun to grow even before the disaster that was Bucky’s recovery – her fierce support during that time only cemented their bond.

“Wanda? What is it?”

Bucky, piqued by Wanda’s approach, turned around to face her too.

“If I may,” Wanda said very quietly, “I wanted to let you know, the boy...” here, the woman glanced to the back of the jet, “it’s very difficult to explain... But I feel...”

Steve furrowed his brow, leaning in out of interest. “You feel...?” he prompted.

The woman pursed her lips in annoyance at herself. “I cannot put into words, how I know this, but this feeling... the boy is like me.”

Bucky frowned. “How so?”

“I mean... it remains to be seen, but I feel that we are the same. We... we are both... I do not know the word for it, but we are both human, and yet... _unnatural_.”

It was less of Wanda’s word choice, and more the way she said the word that put a stone in the pit of Steve’s stomach, a sinking feeling of dread coming over him. “What... what do you mean?”

Scarlet Witch made a sound of frustration. “I don’t know; I cannot explain, but I thought it was important to tell you.”

Suddenly, Steve recalled the way he had been saved from the falling building, the way he thought that it had been Wanda, at first, who had come to their rescue, and perhaps he could see what Wanda was trying to get at.

“Thank you for telling us, Wanda, I appreciate it.”

Wanda smiled in return.

The rest of the ride went relatively uneventfully, and they arrived at the tower in record time. Upon landing, everyone immediately headed through the hanger, towards the main elevators.

“Captain Rogers.” Jarvis’ calm, neutral voice rung out quietly, “You have returned accompanied by two young strangers.” It was a statement, and made non-aggressively, as was the AI’s signature style.

“I have,” Steve replied. “Who’s home right now?”

“Aside from the returning party, Clint Barton and Dr. Banner are present, sir.”

“And Tony?”

“Overseas, at the moment. Something about a business venture in Dubai.”

Steve nodded, knowing that Jarvis could see from the myriad of security cameras hidden throughout the tower. “Alright. Could we call a team meeting for all members currently in the tower? Common floor conference room.”

“Very well, Captain,” Jarvis replied.

As they passed under the wide, arching roof, Steve – and undoubtedly everyone else – couldn’t help but hear Morgan’s awed gasps. “So this is what Avengers Tower looked like,” he said in a hushed whisper that nevertheless echoed off the high ceilings.

To say that the elevator ride was awkward was an enormous understatement, but not before long, they arrived at the common floor, and it was short walk to the conference room. Glass floor-to-ceiling walls did nothing to hide the inside view from the corridor, but the Avengers Tower had strict enough security for that not to be an issue. Inside, white walls and a long, glass conference table dominated the space. Comfy, padded chairs were haphazardly tucked around the table. One wall was covered in display screens, and another held a row of whiteboards.

Clint and Bruce were already present, having been summoned by Jarvis. They sat several seats apart, casually chatting as they waited. Maria Hill was also present, her hair tied into a tight bun. Though she wasn’t an official member of the team, she was an important member of their intelligence network, and so she was often included in team meetings when she was in the vicinity.

“That was fast!” Clint said cheerily as Steve entered the room first. “I suppose the mission went well, from the speed of your return and the goopy-ness of your suits!”

“Captain, I assume you found something egregious during the mission, or you would not have called a team meeting so urgently,” Bruce said gently from his seat. When Steve moved aside to take his place, Bruce’s eyebrows disappeared into his forehead, signalling the fact that he had spied Eleanor and Morgan behind him.

“Alright everyone, take a seat please,” Steve said somberly, placing himself in his customary position at the head of the glass table. Bucky elected to fold his arms menacingly over his chest, leaning against the wall behind Steve, just to his right, instead of taking his regular seat by his side, and the captain had to hold back from rolling his eyes.

Slowly, everyone shuffled into the room to take a place at the table – Nat sat beside Clint, giving him a small peck on the cheek as she gracefully folded herself into her chair. Sam took the seat on Steve’s right, and Thor sat on Sam’s other side. Though the seat directly to Steve’s right was empty, Wanda left it unoccupied and took the seat one over. Directly opposite Steve, on the other end of the long table, Eleanor sat warily, Morgan in the chair beside her.

“So who’s the mini cap over there?” Clint asked, jerking his thumb in her direction.

Steve pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Alright, I suppose we should start from the beginning, so that we’re all on the same page. Please introduce yourselves again.”

Eleanor, a look of gravity on her face, nodded briskly. “My name is Eleanor Sarah Rogers-Barnes, and this is my brother-”

“Morgan Rogers-Barnes!” the boy said.

A murmur washed over the table as everyone reacted to the news. It was obvious from their apparent last names who they were supposed to be. Steve watched carefully, gauging everyone’s responses.

Bruce, upon hearing the names, apparently had his suspicions confirmed – his eyebrows were still in his hairline. He looked stunned as he folded one arm over his chest and tapped the corner of his mouth with the other hand, chewing the ends of his glasses as his mind no doubt was running through a myriad of things.

Thor seemed somewhat surprised by the news – or was it impressed? In any case, his eyebrows were also high on his head. The demigod placed his hands on the table and looked from one end of the table to the other, and back again, no doubt looking for familial resemblances.

Natasha was always hard to read, and this was no exception. She had quirked an eyebrow at the names, but gave nothing else away. Clint, on the other hand, looked like he’d just been told that the baby monkeys hatched from eggs.

On his left, Sam was gaping like a fish out of water, and across from him, Wanda had furrowed her brow.

“Alright, so now that we’ve established that, I’m sure everyone is wondering how that’s possible,” Steve said calmly.

There was a round of nodding heads.

“Well, to answer that, we need to know where we are,” Eleanor responded. “I know we’re in New York, in Avengers Tower, on Earth, but it’s... more complicated than that. Morgan? Can you...?”

The boy nodded enthusiastically. “Right. Okay. Well first of all, what year is it? I mean, I can kinda tell what year it is, around, but having the actual number would help.”

“2015,” Steve replied.

It didn’t seem possible for the Morgan to be any livelier, but he perked up even more at hearing the year. “Oh, okay cool! That’s what I thought – somewhere around the 2010’s, cause of the whole Avengers composition and stuff, but I wasn’t entirely sure. Okay. So, like, you guys have heard of alternate universes, right?”

“Alternate Universes specifically, or do you include parallel timelines?” asked Bruce, leaning forwards.

Steve blinked. It was science jargon that he didn’t quite grasp.

Morgan turned to Bruce. “Well, for the purposes of what we’re talking about, I’m talking about all of the stuff like that. Like, how there are universes that are similar to this one, but a little bit different, a universe where everyone exists, but not the same.”

Steve was confused, and it looked like he wasn’t the only one. “Clarification?” the Captain asked.

Several people started talking at once, and Steve had to call for order. “Okay, hands for volunteers.” He swears sometimes running the Avengers was no different than when he and Bucky used to babysit for the Polish family next door. He decided to call on Bruce first.

“Well, my understanding is – and correct me if I’m wrong, Morgan – that... well let me give an example. Let’s say you’re faced with a decision, um, perhaps, what to eat for breakfast, and you’re trying to decide between eggs or toast. There’s a theory that there are more than one version of our universe in existence. All of them are almost exactly the same except for very small differences.

“So, you might decide that you want to have eggs for breakfast, but there is another universe that’s exactly the same as this one in every way, except in that universe, the version of you has chosen to have toast for breakfast. Now imagine this situation, but expanded to include an infinite number of choices and an infinite number of outcomes, each with a universe to match,” Bruce concluded. “Am I right?” he asked, turning to Morgan.

The boy smiled brightly. “Pretty much.”

“So you’re saying... you come from one of these... alternate universes?”

“Exactly! Although, that’s not _entirely_ accurate, cause if this is 2015, then technically, El and I are like, from an alternate universe a bit to the left, and a bit in the future.”

“Um... okay?” It all seemed very technical and more than Steve could grasp at the moment. “So... you’re our kids from kind of the future and kind of a parallel universe?”

“Yep!”

“That doesn’t explain why you have the shield,” Bucky said gruffly from behind him.

Eleanor, at whom the comment was aimed, shifted uncomfortably. “Well... it’s a long story but-”

“Then summarize,” Bucky growled.

The young woman’s expression hardened. “Alright then, in essence, where we’re from, you’re both dead, and I, being Steve’s daughter, have taken up the shield in his place.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I know that was so much exposition, and regularly I HATE exposition, but it couldn't be helped, and there was a lot of background that I needed to cover @_@ The next chapter is also a bit exposition heavy, but after that, we should be in the clear =D  
> I'm also starting to realize that I might like cliffhangers a little bit too much for my own good... Sorry about that! XD  
> Also, I realize that this work isn't as ironed out as my usual, but this is kind of intended to be less serious and more... fluff/crack-fic like than anything else I've worked on before, so really I'm just having fun with it ahahaha =P


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter has... more exposition @_@ I'm sorry but it couldn't be helped! But this is the last infodump I promise! I hope you enjoy reading this piece of crack as much I enjoyed writing it XD

If Bucky was expecting any sort of answer, it definitely wasn’t that. None of them had been, and a stunned silence descended upon the group. After a moment or two, Bucky pushed off the wall and came to sit beside Steve, folding his hands on the table in front of him, a frown pulling at the corners of his mouth and a deep crease between his brows.  
  
“Alright... maybe we can go back a bit and start with how we came to have a daughter?” Steve ventured. He wasn’t sure if he was ready to hear about his demise just yet, and he certainly didn’t want to hear about Bucky’s.

Eleanor straightened up, and some of the defensiveness seemed to leave her. “Alright, well, I don’t know if this is the same as how things went in this universe, but in our universe, my father, Steven Grant Rogers, met James Buchanan Barnes, my papa, when they were very young, and they were inseparable from the start. They fought through the Second World War together, and successfully completed many missions with the Howling Commandos. In 1945, Bucky Barnes was declared MIA after a covert mission in the Alps. Unbeknownst to everyone else, Hydra recovered him and began development of their Winter Soldier project.”

Steve felt a hand on his arm, and he looked down to find Bucky’s fingers gripping his tense muscles. Blinking in surprise, Steve found his own fists clenched and his fibres tense. The captain blinked in surprise, a little bit shocked at his own reaction.

Looking up, Steve thanked Bucky with a nod, the other man’s face bearing a deep and worn look.

“Meanwhile,” Eleanor continued, “Steve Rogers crashed into the North Atlantic Ocean, presumed dead, but was preserved in the ice.” The young woman paused. “Does that match up with the events in this universe so far?”

Swallowing thickly, Steve nodded.

“Okay. So, in our universe, you guys had already been in a relationship before the war and the ice and everything, and after Papa’s rehabilitation, you two decided to get married, since it was legal and everything. It was private, and only a handful of people knew.” The young woman smirked. “Took the US government a few years to catch on, but they threw a hissy fit when they found out.”

Steve and Bucky shared an amused look, and there were a few chuckles around the table.

“A few years after that, the both of you decided that you wanted to start a family. Which is where I came into the picture. I’m not entirely sure on a lot of the details, but basically, Uncle Bruce combined his expertise in human biology with Auntie Wanda’s magic, and somehow made an embryo that was half Steve Rogers and half Bucky Barnes. Auntie Nat volunteered to be my surrogate mother, and nine months later, I popped out of her uterus.”

Steve blinked, and he found himself looking at the four other people involved in his daughter’s conception. Bruce looked bewildered, as though he was trying to figure out if he was actually smart enough to pull off something like that. Nat’s face was blank, but Steve swore he saw a tear shining in the corner of her eye. Wanda and Bucky looked equally as stunned as each other.

“The US government got wind of me while Auntie Nat was pregnant, and like they do with everything, the government swirled their grubby, meddling hands in our business,” Eleanor said with disdainful expression. “They insisted that Captain America’s daughter needed to have a patriotic name, approved by Congress.”

Steve grit his teeth. His relationship with the government had always been... rather strained, and though he was not surprised that they would stoop to something like this, it was still enraging for him to hear. Eleanor and Bucky seemed to share his opinion, judging from the look on their faces.

“Needless to say, you were both very angry. But in the end, you guys and Congress managed to come to an agreement. You decided on Eleanor Sarah Rogers-Barnes. My first name, Eleanor, was chosen after First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Congress was satisfied with that patriotic homage, she being the longest serving First Lady and everything, but it was also a kind of inside joke. Papa thought it would be really funny if I was named after a First Lady since he was named after a president.”

Bucky snorted, and when Steve looked over, he found a thoroughly amused look on the man’s face. Apparently, the two Buckys shared a sense of humour.

“My middle name was taken from Father’s mother, Sarah Rogers.”

Eleanor looked up, and after holding her gaze for a few seconds, Steve looked down. The mention of his ma caused his emotions to stir more than he expected. Technically, he supposed that at this point, his ma died over eighty years ago, but her loss still felt raw to Steve. The captain had never really given much thought to children, let alone what to name them, but he now had to admit that Sarah was the only thing he would have ever considered as a name for a daughter.

There was a smirk from Steve’s left. “Well that explains why you look like the spitting image of Steve’s momma,” Bucky said, leaning back in his chair. “Looks like she inherited your good looks, Steve.”

“Except,” Steve said softly, looking back down at his hands, “for her eyes. She’s got-”

“Papa’s eyes,” Eleanor finished for him, a small smile blossoming on her face. “I know; you liked to tell me that.”

Steve could only offer a small smile in return. He knew that technically, this wasn’t _his_ daughter, she was the daughter of the version of him from another universe (and he was still trying to wrap his head around that), but he still couldn’t help the feeling of pride that began to swell in his chest.

“So what about your brother, then?” asked Clint, completely ruining the private moment that Steve was having with his technically-not-daughter-but-still-kind-of-his-daughter-type-person.

Eleanor looked to where her brother was sitting beside her. “Morgan?”

The boy, fell uncharacteristically quiet, and took to looking at his feet. “You can tell them, El.”

The young woman nodded, placing a reassuring hand on the boy’s shoulder.. “Morgan’s... slightly different. It...” casting around for the right phrase, Eleanor seemed to struggle to find the right words.

“Papa was under Hydra control for a long time, in our universe. After they’d gotten the Winter Soldier project running smoothly in the late 50’s, they were impressed by the results but... they wanted more. They wanted better. They started... experimenting, trying to find more ways to perfect the perfect killing machine.”

It was Steve’s turn to place a hand on his partner’s arm. Bucky had gone completely still, and Steve knew that it was one of the signs that the soldier was struggling to keep control. It was something new that he had to learn when he and Sam had found him again. Back before the war, Bucky had been the light of his world, and one of the reasons was because Bucky was high energy. Seventy years and the winters between them had changed many things. Thankfully, their love for one another was not one of them.

Eleanor continued, ignoring Bucky’s reaction. “As deadly as Winter Soldier was... there was still fight left in him. It’s why they had to wipe his memory after every mission. It was effective, but also time consuming and costly, and it didn’t always work.”

Beside him, Steve could feel Bucky’s anger and guilt mounting. The man’s shoulders were high and tense. Steve squeezed Bucky’s arm gently; the bicep beneath his fingers felt taut and strained under the fabric.

“Hydra tried all kinds of things. Some of them worked, to some degree but most of them didn’t. Even after Father recovered Papa, they were still trying. Nothing they did could really be considered successful, until one branch got a hold of some of Papa’s blood samples. We never figured out how exactly they did it, but Morgan was-”

But before she could say any more, Bucky stood so suddenly that his chair toppled behind him. There was a seething, deadly look in his eye. Steve was about to rise, about to ask what was wrong, when the soldier turned and struck the glass wall with his left fist.

The reinforced pane shattered, filling the room with a shrill ring of breaking ceramic and scattering shards everywhere at their feet.

“Buck...?”

The man’s shoulders heaved along with his heavy breath. “He’s a clone. They cloned me.”

Everyone’s eyes immediately turned to Eleanor for confirmation. Her small sigh of defeat was all they needed.

Steve stood and approached slowly. He knew that Bucky was in control of himself – during Bucky’s recovery, they managed to get most of the programming out of his head, and whatever was leftover, he knew Bucky was strong enough to control – but it was still concerning whenever the man lashed out like this.

“Bucky,” Steve said softly, putting a hand on the man’s shoulder. Bucky didn’t respond, but he didn’t shrug off the hand either.

“P-Papa?” Morgan’s voice was barely a squeak.

Bucky turned. Steve was shocked by the glare of utter hatred and loathing that his partner levelled upon the boy; it was the most venomous look that he’d ever seen, and it sent cold chills down his spine.

The dark haired boy’s bright green eyes widened, and he burst into tears. Pushing back his chair, he fled the conference room.

“Bucky!” Steve couldn’t believe what his partner had just done. Grabbing the man by the shoulders, Steve pulled Bucky through the hole in the glass wall and into the hall, turning him to face him square on. “What the hell was that?” he demanded in a whisper.

Steve could hear the mechanical whirring of the metal arm as Bucky clenched his fists, his body tense and his expression sour. “Don’t, Steve.”

“No, Bucky, seriously. What the hell was that? He’s just a kid!”

“Drop it,” Bucky ground out through his teeth. “You wouldn’t understand.”

Steve crossed his arms. “Oh yeah? Try me.” He would be lying if he said that last statement hadn’t stung.

“Just leave it, Rogers.”

The captain pursed his lips. “Fine. But we’re not done talking about this,” he said, poking Bucky in the chest. Stepping back through the broken pane, and back into the conference room, he was confronted with the concerned faces of his teammates. “Where’s Sam? And Maria?”

Natasha raised an eyebrow at him as Bucky stepped into the room behind him. “Maria got called out to deal with some of the PR from today’s festivities. And while you two were having your lovers’ spat, Sam went after the kids.”

Looking to the other end of the table, Steve saw that Eleanor was also gone.

“Don’t worry, Sam said he’d send Eleanor back. The more we find out, the more questions it raises, it seems,” Nat said.

“Now you know how it feels to be a scientist,” Bruce muttered, just audible enough for Steve to catch with his enhanced hearing.

With a heavy sigh, Steve collapsed back into his seat. Bucky stiffly resumed the one beside him. “So? What do we think?” the captain asked to fill the silence.

Clint was the first to speak. “That kid’s a tough cookie.”

“Which one?” asked Maria.

The archer shrugged. “Both of them. Wouldn’t have expected anything less from the captain with the star-spangled tights and Silent Treatment over there.”

“They have survived much for ones so young,” said Thor, his voice quieter than usual. Steve turned to face him, and the golden-haired warrior was looking at his hand on the glass tabletop. “Losing one’s father is difficult. To have lost both of one’s fathers... their hearts show great strength in carrying such a heavy burden.”

There was a pause.

“Do you think we can trust them?” Steve asked.

“How can we not?” asked Wanda. “She is your daughter, and he is your son. They are your children, your blood, and it is clear that they love you very much.”

“Did you look into their minds?”

The Sokovian shook her head. “I do not need my powers to tell me this. The light in the boys’ eyes when he looks upon you, and the reverence in their voices when they speak of you is enough to know.”

Bruce shifted in his seat. “How do we know they are genuine? Can we be sure that this isn’t some sort of... ruse?”

Natasha nodded. “However unlikely, it’s possible that it could be a ploy. Gain our confidence and take us down from the inside.”

Out of everyone in the room, Steve trusted Nat’s judgement of character second only to his own, and right now, he was too emotional to know what to think. “Do you think we can trust them, Nat?”

The woman shrugged. “It’s hard to say. The girl doesn’t seem untrustworthy, but she’s closed off and it’s difficult to call; at this point I wouldn’t bet one way or the other. The boy, on the other hand, seems to be pretty open, and he’s young – if he’s acting, he’s doing a really good job.”

Steve creased his brow. All of this new information was like facing down a tidal wave, and all he could do is let the water wash over him and pray that he could swim. His head was spinning a little, and he didn’t know what to make of all of it just yet. He wanted to trust the kids – they seemed genuine, but the whole situation was just so... alien to him, and that was throwing him off.

A contemplative silence descended upon the Avengers, broken only a few minutes later by the sounds of boots clacking on the tiled floor. True to her word, a moment later, Eleanor reappeared and returned to her place at the table. There was a steely expression in her eyes, and Steve couldn’t help but sympathize. It was clear that she loved her brother, and Steve could definitely relate to her protectiveness.

“Eleanor, I’m sorry about Bucky,” Steve said, shooting his partner a withering glare.

“It’s fine,” the young woman replied, but Steve could tell from the way she set her jaw that she was still pissed. Eleanor’s protectiveness of her brother reminded Steve of himself, and the captain found a weird feeling settle into his chest.

Natasha flipped her hair and gave Steve a subtle look; it was her way of saying, ‘like father like daughter.’

Thor cleared his throat. “Please, continue the tale of the Little Soldier’s origin,” he said gently.

Eleanor glanced around the table before continuing. Steve could see that she was uneasy without her brother in sight, but there wasn’t much she could do about the situation, being surrounded so many other superheroes.

“We – well, you two, I mean; I wasn’t on the mission – found Morgan when he was five. It was one of the last surviving branches of Hydra, and the Avengers had gone to destroy the base and capture any high ranking members. The facility had been identified by sources as a ‘weapons research facility’, but nobody could have imagined what kind of ‘weapons’ they were working on.”

Those words cast an ominous cloud over the conference room.

“I was only thirteen at the time, and I don’t know a lot of the details – Father didn’t say very much, and Papa refused to talk about it. All I know is that they were working on cloning the Winter Soldier, and they had succeeded with Morgan. Not only was he enhanced with a cocktail they cooked up in an attempt to replicate the serum, but he’d also been put through the same program that gave Auntie Wanda her powers.”

A small gasp escaped Wanda’s lips, the brunette bringing her hand to cover her mouth. “Poor child,” she whispered.

Steve didn’t know many of the details about the Hydra program for which Wanda had volunteered, but he knew it wasn’t pleasant at all. Though she was strong and growing into herself every day, Wanda was still haunted by the terrors that she had undergone to obtain her abilities, and the loss of her twin brother still weighed heavily on her soul.

That Hydra had put a toddler through the same process made Steve sick to his stomach. He’d thought he knew the depths of what Hydra had been willing to do to obtain power and control, but this was a whole new ballgame.

A mechanical whirring caught Steve’s attention, and when he turned to look, he could see Bucky’s fists flexing, the plates on his mechanical arm shifting in a telltale sign of the soldier’s irritation.

“You two took Morgan home from the facility. There were... some people who thought he was too dangerous; people were afraid that a five-year-old kid wouldn’t be able to handle the amount of raw power at his disposal. Naturally, you disagreed. We adopted Morgan and he’s been part of the family ever since.”

Steve didn’t know what to say. A child born of such horrors... it was difficult for him to fathom. He was rather stunned at the news, and was having trouble processing the cheery boy’s past.

“Why don’t you tell us about the portal and how you got here from your universe?”

Steve looked up; it was Natasha who had spoken, and to be honest the captain was relieved that she had the sense to move the discussion forward when he clearly wasn’t able to do so.

“Alright.” Eleanor shifted weight and crossed her legs. “There was a distress call, so Morgan and I were sent to deal with the situation. From the initial diagnosis, it seemed like a simple mission: some experiments-gone-wrong had created those ghastly monsters, and they were on the loose. It was just supposed to be a clean-up type mission. I’m not even sure how the portal was opened, but it happened after damage to the building caused a gas leak, which ignited into an explosion. My guess is that whoever created those things had a hyper drive or some other sort of interstellar engine in the lab, and the explosion triggered a chain reaction that ripped open a hole in space-time. Morgan and I were planning on going back through once we finished off the monsters, but the portal collapsed before we were able to.”

Everyone around the table looked at each other. It was a lot of information to take in, and it seemed that nobody really knew what to say.

“Eleanor, could you step outside and give us all a minute? You’ve given us a lot to consider, and we would appreciate the time and space to come to a decision about where to go from here,” Nat said, and Steve was grateful.

Eleanor stood. “Sure. But I can make it easy for you: Morgan and I don’t want trouble. We’re not even supposed to be here. We just want to get back to our own universe, and the sooner we get back, the better it is for everyone.”

Natasha gave her a smile. “Thanks for your honesty.”

The young woman nodded. “I’ll be with Morgan and Uncle Sammy,” she said, and left the room.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm thinking... this piece is abou half way done? Maybe 40% done?  
> Bad news is, I've signed up to participate in the [ Stucky Big Bang ](http://thestuckylibrary.tumblr.com/bigbangfaq/) being hosted by the wonderful awesome people at [ The Stucky Library ](http://thestuckylibrary.tumblr.com/), and I need to start working on my Big Bang fic cause the deadline is approaching, so I won't be able to work on this until I'm done that one @_@  
> Good news is, I'll be completing at least two fics this year! Thanks for baring with me, and thanks for reading! =D


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why hello there! Long time no update! I know it's been like six months since the last one, but I swear I didn't forget about this fic! It's just taken a while to churn out this chapter. Life and other things can be distracting, but never fear! Anyways, the fic is about two or three chapters away from being done. I hope the new chapter was worth the wait! Much love!

Steve waited until Eleanor’s footsteps disappeared down the hall before speaking. “So, what should we do?”

“That depends on whether we decide to trust them or not,” Bruce answered. He had a meditative expression on his face, and his hands were folded in front of him on the glass table. The man was wearing a causal pair of tan khakis and the sleeves of his button-up shirt were rolled up to the elbows. Although Steve had only known the nuclear physicist-slash-biologist for a couple of years, it was evident that the man preferred to keep a contemplative silence. When Bruce did speak, however, Steve knew that it was always because he had something important say, and the captain always made sure to pay careful attention on those occasions.

“So what are you suggesting we do if we don’t trust them? Lock them up?” asked Clint.

The captain frowned. “We’re not locking up anybody,” he said.

“I agree with the Captain,” said Thor. “The young ones have already suffered enough hardship.”

Bucky huffed. “That sob story could all be a lie for all we know.”

The golden haired Norse shrugged. “I elect to give them the chance to prove their honour. I would also advise caution, Sergeant; we do not want to create enemies where none exist,” he said with gravity.

Bucky scowled in return.

“I agree with Thor,” offered Wanda. “The children deserve the benefit of the doubt. They have not shown themselves to be untrustworthy today.”

“We’ve known them for less than half a day!” said Bucky, stabbing the table with a finger.

Wanda liked to gesture as she spoke, and her bracelets jingling softly along with her movements. “I am not saying that we should reveal our secrets to them. I just think that they should be given the chance to show us that we can trust them; we shouldn’t be condemning them without good reason.”

Bucky frowned, his body composed of nothing but lines of tension.

Natasha brushed several stray strands of fiery hair out of her face. “You guys can argue about trustworthiness all day, but I don’t think it changes the objective.”

Steve raised an eyebrow.

“You heard her yourself: Eleanor just wants them to get back to their own universe, so that’s what I think we should do, regardless of whether or not we can trust them. It would be in everyone’s best interest to find out how we can do that. It would get them out of our hair, and back where they belong.”

The captain sat back, folding one arm across his chest and tapping his chin with his other hand. Everyone had a good point. Taking everyone’s opinion into account was important to him, and he genuinely understood the concerns that several of his team mates had raised. Eleanor and Morgan were unknown variables, and he could appreciate the potential danger that they posed to everyone. However, in this case, Steve decided to go with his gut instincts on this one.

“Final decision?” asked Clint.

“We let them stay, for now. We’ll see if we can find a way to get them home, and if we can’t, we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.” Wanda and Thor smiled at the decision, their agreement evident on their faces. Clint looked nonplussed; Natasha’s face was blank and unreadable, as always. Bruce looked slightly concerned. “Wanda, Bruce, Thor – could you take a look into how we might get them back to their universe? I’m not sure how these parallel universes are supposed to work...”

Thor rubbed his forehead. “I will return to Asguard and seek counsel. Perhaps the Tesseract may be able to aid us in this endeavor.”

Bruce sighed. “Wanda and I will see what we can dig up,” he said, standing from where he was sitting.

Steve nodded. “Thank you. And to everyone who was on the mission today – Good work team. Let’s get cleaned up.”

With that, the meeting adjourned. Immediately, Clint stood from his seat and approached Thor, and soon the hallway filled with Thor’s booming voice, no doubt regaling Clint with tales of his victory. Bruce quietly shuffled towards the door, his head bent, eyebrows pinched, and muttering all the way. Wanda rose gracefully from her chair and, after sending a quick smile to Steve, followed Bruce down the hall. Natasha sent Steve a meaningful look before disappearing after Clint and Thor, and soon Steve was left with only Bucky.

The captain had remained in his seat, weary from the long battle and the strange turn of events. Out of all the strange things that he’d experienced in life, children from the future wasn’t something he’d have ever expected.

Movement and the sound of a chair scraping against the floor brought Steve out of his thoughts.

“I’m grabbing a shower,” Bucky said as he made to leave.

“Alright,” said Steve with a sigh. “I’ll go find the kids.”

The dark-haired man didn’t respond.

Just as he was stepping into the hallway, Steve called out. “Hey Buck?”

The man shot Steve an annoyed glare.

“Never mind. I’ll see you upstairs,” said Steve as he watched as Bucky disappear down the corridor in the direction of the elevators. With a sigh, the captain pushed back from the table and stood. Deciding to take the stairs, Steve walked all the way up to the common floor, accompanied only by his thoughts and the echoing sounds on his boots on the steps.

The common floor living room was large and spacious. Push grey carpeting stretched from the wall housing the floor-to-ceiling TV screen all the way out to wall of windows that looked out onto the balcony. Gigantic, fluffy couches were arranged around a sleek, stainless steel coffee table, and the left side opened up into a large, roomy kitchen.

Careful not to drag any mud onto the clean carpets, Steve made his way over to the sliding doors. The balcony was even bigger than the living room, with a swimming pool on one side and a small garden on the other. Stepping out into the warm sun, Steve could hear laughter underneath the drone of Sam’s gear.

“Go long Uncle Sammy!”

Looking towards the voice, Steve spotted Morgan standing by the pool. The boy had his hands raised, and a football was suspended in the air above the boy’s head, icy blue tendrils swirling around the object.

“Okay!” came Sam’s distant reply, and Steve looked up to see the red and black of his uniform streaking across the sky.

“Okay, here goes!” Morgan shouted back. With a grunt of effort, Morgan swung his arms forward. The football above his head moved in synch with the boy’s arms, and went soaring across the balcony, over the railing, and out over the city.

“Perfect spiral, Morgan,” said Eleanor, coming to stand beside her brother.

“Thanks El,” the boy said, beaming.

Steve let out a low whistle. “That’s a good toss, kid,” he said, shielding his eyes to follow the trajectory of the football as it sailed over the New York City skyline with Sam in pursuit.

Morgan turned at the sound of his voice. “Father!” he said, and Steve couldn’t help but laugh. It was such a weird feeling, having someone call him their father, and it made his insides squirm in a way that Steve couldn’t quite describe. Eleanor, on the other hand, seemed to tense at his sudden appearance, and after Bucky’s behavior in the meeting, he wasn’t exactly surprised.

“Hey,” he said with a wave.

Morgan opened his mouth to respond, but Eleanor stepped in front of him defensively.

Steve held up his hands and stopped in place.

“El, what are you doing,” Morgan complained as he tried to move her out of the way.

“Quit it, Morgan,” she said lowly, pushing a hand onto the side of Morgan’s face in an attempt to keep him behind her.

“Are you crazy? Father’s not going to hurt us.”

Eleanor looked like she thought otherwise, and her expression of distrust suddenly struck Steve, because it was the exact same look that Bucky wore all too often since they’d emerged in the 21st century. “We don’t know that.”

Growling in frustration, Morgan clawed at his sister. “Well. I. Do.” Finally breaking free of her grasp, he sprinted forwards before Eleanor could catch the back of his battle armour with an outstretch hand. Dashing the handful of feet between them, Morgan skidded to a stop in front of Steve and looked up at him with a bright, eager smile. “Hi Father,” Morgan said, slightly out of breath.

Steve laughed a bit and ran a hand through his grimy hair; the kid’s enthusiasm was cute. “Hey Morgan.”

“I know you’re not going to hurt us, Father. I trust you.”

And if Steve said that those words didn’t punch the air out of his lungs, well he’d be lying. Sure, blind trust like that was probably dangerous, naive, and foolhardy, but it was also weirdly touching. “Thanks Morgan,” Steve said, placing a hand on the boy’s shoulder.

Morgan beamed.

Eleanor narrowed her eyes.

“Nice throw, Morgan!”

Everyone turned as Sam touched down on the concrete terrace, the football tucked under his arms. Smiling as he removed his goggles, Sam’s wings retracted as he approached them.

“Thanks Uncle Sammy. I’ve been practicing,” he said shyly.

“So, Cap, we got a decision?”

All eyes turned to Steve.

“Uh. Yeah. Eleanor and Morgan will stay with us in the tower while we try to find a way to get them back to their own parallel universe... thing”

“Sweet,” said Sam. “Where’re they bunking? With you guys?”

Steve shrugged. “There aren’t any guest bedrooms in the tower and Buck and I’ve got four huge couches in our living room. I don’t see why not.”

Sam smirked. “And you managed to convince your lover boy to agree?”

“He’ll come around,” Steve said, looking away.

With a laugh, Sam clapped him on the shoulder. “You do that. I’m going to get cleaned up; I don’t want any of the gunk on my suit to get crusty.” Not for the first time, Steve noticed that everyone was still splattered in colourful, very sticky, and now kind of smelly monster guts. “See y’all at movie night tonight!” Sam said with a salute.

Steve looked down at his own ruined suit, and then at Morgan and Eleanor’s equally soiled outfits. “Let’s go get you guys cleaned up,” he said, leading them back into the tower. “I’ll ask Jarvis to see if he can find you something to change into.”

Once the two newcomers had been squared away with the full bathrooms on the common floor, with the promise of fresh clothes from Jarvis, Steve headed into the elevator and up to the floor he shared with Bucky. Sighing, Steve dragged a hand down his face; it had been a long day, and it was probably not going to get much easier. When the elevator chimed softly and the doors slid open, Steve squared his shoulders and stepped into the living room.

Before they’d found Bucky again, the floor had been basically empty. Steve didn’t want to waste the time decorating – he was on the move so often that he didn’t really feel the need to make it feel like home. Besides, without Bucky, nowhere would have felt like home. Now, the living room had slowly been accumulating things – a couple of paintings that Bucky thought Steve would like, odds and ends from the 30s and 40s they found at flea markets, antique shops, and ordered from the internet. The coffee table was littered with old books and small ornaments, and they’d adopted a couple of houseplants.

Undoing the clasps on his shoulders, Steve padded towards the bedroom. Bucky’s black leather armour was already sitting at the bottom of a biohazard-labeled garbage bag in the corner, and he could hear the shower running in the ensuite bathroom.

There was no rush as Steve undressed. His own uniform joined Bucky’s in the bright yellow bag. Tying it off, Steve dumped it down the special laundry chute – only Avengers Tower would have something as absurd as a built-in superhero suit sanitizing and laundry service.

Steve entered the cool bathroom completely naked. The room was lined from floor to ceiling with peach-coloured marble tiles, matching the marble countertops, highlighted with jade-accented furnishings. Large and spacious, Steve was sure that it was larger than the apartment that he and Bucky had once rented almost a century ago. Complete with two sets of sinks, a bathtub the size of a small van, and massive shower, it was the kind of luxury that, to this day, made Steve more than slightly uncomfortable.

At the far end of the room, behind a misted pane of glass, Bucky was taking a shower. With Bucky’s back turned to the door, Steve could see the rivulets of hot, steaming water as they ran down his broad, well defined shoulders and back. He was lathering shampoo through the long locks of dark hair, and for a moment, Steve allowed himself to soak in the image of the man he loved.

He knew Bucky would have heard him – Bucky’s hearing was only second to that of Nat’s – but Bucky didn’t acknowledge Steve’s entrance. Moving slowly and quietly, Steve entered the shower. The water was scalding hot, immediately turning the surface of Steve’s skin bright red. Bucky didn’t used to shower with near-boiling water – for one, hot water was a luxury in their tiny, rundown apartment, but Bucky never seemed to mind the lukewarm water back then. Now however... Bucky would almost flat-out refuse to wash if the water wasn’t scalding.

Steve feet made small _splish_ -ing sounds as he padded across the shower. Coming up behind Bucky, Steve raised his hands and started rubbing the shampoo into Bucky’s hair for him, replacing the man’s own hands. Bucky hummed as Steve gently massaged his scalp, and Steve could see some of the tension leeching away from the man’s tight muscles. Again, there was no rush, and Steve took his time. Eventually, once Bucky’s long hair had been thoroughly washed and he was satisfied with the massage he’d given, Steve carefully guided Bucky’s head under the spray to wash away the bubbles and suds.

Done with Bucky’s hair, Steve reached over to grab a bar of the ridiculously expensive soap he loved. Normally, Steve wouldn’t have ever spent such an obscene amount of money on something as trivial as soap, but this particular hand-made soap just happened to make Bucky’s skin as soft and supple as newly woven silk (he had two crates of it hiding in the supply closet, and Jarvis had the contact information of the soap maker tucked away in his database). Starting with Bucky’s shoulders and back, Steve was gentle. He took the time to make sure he got every inch of skin as Steve slid his hands across Bucky’s hard, defined muscles, first with the bar of soap, and then again with his open palm and fingers. Steve traced every dip and rise of each chord, fibre, tendon, and scar as loving as he could. Next were Bucky’s arms; first the left, and then the right, right from the ball of the shoulder and the armpit down to the tip of his fingers, both flesh and metal. Once he was done there, Steve slowly turned Bucky to face him.

Bucky’s eyes had fallen closed, and his mouth was slightly parted as he breathed. Silently, Steve gently tilted Bucky’s face back, cradling the back of his skull as gingerly as he could in one hand, and coated his exposed neck in a layer of soap with the other. Light stubble rasped against Steve’s fingers and he gently washed away the dried, bright orange residue, and the friction sent a slight shiver down Steve’s body.

Working leisurely, Steve made his way down to the base of Bucky’s throat, across his collar bones, and then further down his broad chest and defined abs. He was about to drop into a crouch to wash Bucky’s hips and legs, when there was a hand on his chest.

Steve stilled, looking up to find Bucky’s bright green eyes upon him.

Being pinned by Bucky’s intense gaze made Steve swallow thickly. In silent understanding, he took a step forward, into Bucky’s arms, and folded himself into Bucky’s embrace, lowering his head into the crook of Bucky’s shoulder.

He didn’t know for how long they stood there under the steaming spray, but Steve didn’t care. He lived for these quiet moments they shared together.

“I hate it when we fight,” Steve said when they broke apart, his small voice barely echoing over the tiles.

“Me too.”

“Why don’t you trust them?”

Bucky sighed. “I don’t want to see you hurt. If it’s true that they’re our kids... that’s great, but if they’re not? What better way to de-rail Captain America than to get him attached to someone, and then take that someone away?” he asked, looking up into Steve’s eyes.

There was a rawness in Bucky’s expression that made Steve’s blood run cold.

“Bucky...”

“Steve, you can’t rule it out,” he insisted, and then more quietly – almost so quiet that Steve didn’t catch his words – he added, “it’s happened before.”

“No, Buck, you don’t get to feel guilty about that,” Steve said, grabbing him by the shoulders and forcing him to meet Steve’s eyes. “That wasn’t your fault!”

“But if I’d been stronger, or faster, or I’d reacted sooner-”

“No! Stop that! Bucky. It. Was. Not. Your. Fault. There are a lot of people to blame for what happened, but you are not one of them.”

“I’ll believe it when you stop blaming yourself for what happened either,” Bucky said, the challenge clear in the resolve in his voice and the glint of steel in his eyes.

Steve opened and closed his mouth like a gaping fish.

“That’s right, Rogers. You forget that I can read you like an open book. It’s not as easy as you say, isn’t it?” Bucky sighed, and seemed to deflate a little. “I don’t want to talk about this right now. Can we just... agree that we’re both really fucked up and leave it at that?”

Steve took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. He dropped his hands from Bucky’s shoulders and let them trail down to rest on Bucky’s hips. “Alright. I’m sorry.”

“Me too,” Bucky said, moving closer and brushing their noses together.

“S’ok. I love you.”

“Love you too, punk.”

“Jerk,” Steve said, kissing Bucky gently.

“So, what now?”

“I offered to let the kids stay in our living room. I know you don’t trust them but... give them a chance? For me?”

“Fine. I’ll try to give them a chance,” Bucky said, looking unhappy.

“Especially Morgan, okay? I know you hate him, but he looks up to you, and- ”

Bucky started, an expression of surprise, and then confusion crossing his face. “Wait what? Hate him? I don’t hate Morgan.”

Steve frowned. “You sure looked like you did.”

“Oh.”

“If you don’t hate him, why did you look at him like you did?”

“I... did that?”

Steve nodded.

Bucky sighed, and Steve tightened his arms around his waist. “I just... lost control of myself for a minute. Looking at Morgan reminded me of everything Hydra did to me – what they turned me into. I felt... like it was some sick, cosmic joke, like everything that I used to be and all of my failures were being paraded before my eyes and I just... I couldn’t take it.”

Steve pulled Bucky into another embrace, felt him nuzzle against Steve’s chest, shivering slightly despite the insanely high temperature of the water. "I'm sorry, Buck," he said quietly.

"Don't be," Bucky replied with his lips pressed to Steve's skin. "It's over now. They don't have power over me now; nobody does, except for you, and that's the only way I'd have it."

"I love you," Steve whispered into Bucky hair, holding him close.

"I know," Bucky whispered back, "I love you too Stevie."


End file.
